Akunin called the decision to change the libretto of his play “a game of rat”

The Alexandrinsky Theater informed the writer that the authorship of his play now belongs to the Boris Akunin Theater

Writer Boris Akunin (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) said that he was no longer considered the author of the play, the performance of which was being staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater.

“A few days ago I had fun at how the St. Petersburg LDM theater, without notifying the author, shredded the musical “The Diamond Chariot”, removing from there the author, Fandorin, and Japan. But this turns out to be, as Bender put it, “an innocent child’s game of rat,” Akunin said.

He also said that the Alexandrinsky Theater, where his play “1881” was performed, came up with “something even more crazy”: the theater sent him a letter (Akunin attached a copy), in which they announced that the authorship of the play belonged not to him, but directly to the theater. “It’s funny that payments for performance remuneration have been stopped - they didn’t pay them anyway, but now they’ve created something,” the writer added.

“It should be noted that the text of the play “One Eight Eight One” ultimately consists of a compilation of historical materials, dialogues created on the basis of archival documents. The authorship of the text heard in the play belongs to the creative team of the theater production and the DIRECTOR of the play, says a letter from the deputy director of the Alexandrinsky Theater Medvedev, cited by Akunin.

“In general, of course, the idea is productive. The authorship of novels about Fandorin as based on historical materials, and especially “History of the Russian State,” should be transferred to publishing houses. Film scripts - to film crews..."

The decision to rewrite the libretto of the musical “The Diamond Chariot” at the LDM was explained by an offer from CHINA for cooperation, within the framework of which the play was renamed “Marco Polo. White Lotus", and the action was transferred from Japan to China . The theater emphasized that the decision was made even before the covid-19 pandemic due to the prospects of touring in China, it is not related to the recognition of the writer as a foreign agent and his inclusion in the Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists.

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“The situation is this: the agreement with Akunin was signed back in 2018–2019. And the current situation, when Akunin was recognized as a terrorist or a foreign agent, has nothing to do with it. Before the pandemic, we received offers from China for cooperation. And our theater launched several projects,” Anton Tanonov, the theater’s musical director, told RBC.

The theater also clarified that in 2019, between LDM and the copyright holder of Akunin’s works, Abecca Global Inc. — an agreement was concluded on the transfer of the right to use the book “The Diamond Chariot” for the production of a musical. The premiere took place in 2020. According to Tanonov, the writer initially refused to write the libretto and “distanced himself” from the production after the premiere; until now he “didn’t care” about the fate of the musical.

The book “The Diamond Chariot” from the series “The Adventures of Erast Fandorin” consists of two volumes. In the first (chronologically following “Death Lover”), the events take place in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War: at this time, Fandorin works as a consultant in the capital’s gendarme-police department of railways, he must develop a system for ensuring the safety of communications. The second volume (chronologically between the books “Leviathan” and “The Death of Achilles”) deals with the events that took place in 1878 in Japan, where Fandorin served as vice-consul.

The Ministry of Justice recognized Akunin as a foreign agent in January of this year. In December, Rosfinmonitoring added the writer to the list of terrorists and extremists. A criminal case was also opened against him under two articles: justification of terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and dissemination of fakes about the Russian army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). On January 26, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put the writer on the wanted list.

The sanctions against the writer were preceded by a conversation with pranksters who, on behalf of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and ex-Minister of Culture of the country Alexander Tkachenko, asked Akunin questions about the military conflict in Ukraine , financial assistance to Kiev and attacks on targets in RUSSIA. Akunin called the conversation a provocation.